Hugh Howey's Blog, page 81
October 6, 2012
Unbelievable.
Wool hit #1 in the entire Kindle Store. Thank you so much to everyone for spreading the word about this series.
Kindle Daily Deal!
WOOL has been chosen as today’s Kindle Daily Deal! That means for ONE DAY ONLY, the five WOOL books can be had for a measly TWO BUCKS! This is crazy, people. If you know anyone who hasn’t read this work yet, now’s the time to cajole them once more. Or just gift it to them. Coffee doesn’t come this cheap.
Here’s a link to the Kindle Daily Deal page.
This will probably never happen again. There’s no way to beg or buy a KDD selection, it just happens. Sometimes it means a huge boost in a book’s ranking. So feel free to spam your social networks with the awesome news. It’s an award-winning book at a third of the original cost. And I’d love to see how much we can blow this thing up!
October 1, 2012
What an Amazing Year!
It’s hard to know where to start with this bit of news. A year ago this month, I noticed Wool, a little story of mine, was out selling all of my other books and garnering an unusual number of rave reviews. During the month of October, I watched it notch upward and upward. I remember staying up until midnight on the 31st hoping to see a book of mine sell 1,000 copies in a single month. At 35 cents per book, that would be $350 in profit! From writing! That was more money than I made in a week at the bookstore!
At the time, any dreams of quitting my day job and writing for a living were impossible to consider. No way. All I could think of was that I had thirty or forty Amazon reviewers clamoring for more to read. I was getting emails from people demanding more from this world. On November 1st, I started writing the second Wool story. If you’ve read the first book, you’ll know how challenging a task this was. Somehow, I managed to not upset too many people with the direction I took things.
Three months later, I had to quit my day job. The demands on my time were too much. I was selling in a day what I had gone gaga over selling in all of October. In January of this year, I wrote Wool 5, which is the length of a novel at 63,000 words. Over the next few months, I wrote First Shift, another novel. And then I, Zombie. I’m now working on what will be my fourth novel of 2012. Life is a complete blur. And then something like this comes along to put that year and this journey into perspective.
Kindle Book Review is one of the great go-to websites for discovering awesome reads. A few months ago, I found out Wool had been nominated for KBR’s Indie Book of the Year Award. It was the highest honor to make the list of incredible semifinalists, to see Wool listed alongside these other top indie books. I never dreamed of winning. This is an award chosen by a panel of readers and reviewers, and surely there was something better in that pile of awesome ebooks. I’m not supposed to win annual awards. It just doesn’t fit. I still see myself shelving books for a living and writing on the side. I still remember screen-capping Wool at #98 in Science Fiction > Anthologies on Amazon, terrified the book would slip out of the top 100 of that category and never be seen again.
And now this. This is such an honor. Such a highlight of my life, much less my writing career. It’s been an awesome twelve months, and I thank all of you for making it so. I think the best way to express my gratitude might be to punish you all with a new version of the Omnibus. I can include all the changes Random House made, the new chapter, the added scenes, and this big, old, honking gold star slathered on the front!
Just look at it!
And congrats to all the other winners and to the semi-finalists who likely deserved this more than me. The universe will correct for this eventually. It must.
September 29, 2012
What you’re missing!
If you can’t make it to the Tin Roof tonight for my reading and some Sick Tyte Click, here’s a taste of what you’re missing.
First, the reading I gave last time that we can blame for the birth of I, ZOMBIE.
And here’s a video I shot of Sick Tyte Click during one of their first performances.
September 26, 2012
Charleston, SC, here we come!
In three short days, we’ll be hitting The Tin Roof again! If you’re in the Charleston area, come join us. I’ll probably be there from 6:00 until late. I won’t start my reading until 7:30 or so. Come hang out, stay for the band, enjoy some vittles and drinks.It should be a great time. The City Paper even wrote something up about it. Oh, and my lovely wife will be there!
September 20, 2012
Questions from Jason Snyder
A few questions sent in by a reader. Maybe they’ll answer one of yours. Beware of spoilers!
1. How exactly are the stairs in the silo? (This is such a heated discussion in my house) Are the stairs wrapped around the central shaft similar to a spiral staircase, with the levels on the side (essentially creating one long stair case)… or are the stairs (spiral shape or not) broken up by each level, thus creating individual “sets” of stairs?
It’s one continuous spiral staircase! The central “pole” is much thicker than normal, however. A good six feet in diameter. The stairs wrap around this center pole and are wide enough for two people to walk abreast (or pass in opposite directions). Beyond the railing is a gap of ten or so feet to the concrete wall that forms the inner shaft. The landings span this gap and jut off at various angles.
2. What exactly is a “proof” copy? I see people winning these all the time, but am not sure actually what it is.
These are the early versions of books that publishers send around to get reviews, blurbs, and excitement from booksellers. They are usually not final versions (typos and imperfect layouts), and they are almost always paperback. When I reviewed books for a stint, I became swamped in free proof copies of upcoming works. They poured into the bookstore where I worked as well. They aren’t for resell (it’s not legal, actually).
3. After WOOL 6, do you find yourself leaning more toward being a conspiracy theorist (or do you consider yourself one already)?
Whatever the opposite of a conspiracy theorist is, that’s me. A believer in coincidence? A coincidencist? I think people are bad at getting away with shit and even worse at keeping secrets. If the most powerful man on the planet can’t get a blowjob and get away with it, I don’t see how any of the more fanciful schemes could work. Having said that, I write fiction. And the way I think the world works would make for boring stories.
4. Half way through the series I told my wife, that a part of me does not want a “happy ending” with Jules making it back to Lukas, did you ever consider going in the opposite direction with the end?
Oh, I consider every sort of ending. It’s like playing chess. You consider crazy moves, even if for only a moment. I toyed with killing Jules at the end, with the “bad guys” winning, with Lukas dying, all sorts of possibilities. Now, remember what you asked for because I’m not done telling the story.
5. Do you think it would be better to not know the “truth”? (Another hot topic in the house)
This is a tough one. I always say I’d rather know the truth. Even if it hurts to know or is dangerous to know, you can’t make sound decisions without the best data at hand. This will be tested, of course, as we see how Juliette and Lukas attempt to manage their silo with the truth flooding the place. I’m not done exploring this question, not by a long shot!
Coming to Charleston!
Returning to Charleston always feels like coming home. My mother and sister are there, as are my closest of friends. I love the food, the architecture, the history, and the people. Charleston is where I found myself, where I moved onto a boat, and where I fell in love with the sea.
It’s also where The Tin Roof is situated, just west of the Ashley River. The Tin Roof has been gracious about hosting my readings since my very first Molly Fyde book. It’s where a crowd recently convinced me to turn I, ZOMBIE into a novel. Come join us on Saturday, the 29th of September. The reading will start sometime between 7:00 and 8:00, but I’ll be hanging out early and late to gab and sign books. Sick Tyte Click, one of my favorite local bands, will be playing afterward. Good food, good drinks, great friends, the best of times.
September 12, 2012
Forever Free
It’s with tear-filled eyes that I announce the liberation of this little story. It’s been a year since the sales of this novelette forever changed my life. And now I’m sending it off into the world to prance merrily and be forever free. Go, little Wool. Go outside. The rest of us will sit here and watch you on this big screen of ours.
The Silo Wars – Part 1
A rough draft of the first chapter of an upcoming book. Just to piss you off.
•1•
Juliette leaned into the excavator while the others watched. Her body shook as the heavy metal piston slammed into the concrete wall again and again. The vibrations felt violent enough to knock a tooth loose. Every bone and joint shuddered, and old wounds ached with reminders. Her right hand was already numb, that annoying twinge in her elbow resurfacing. And she could tell, as she ate through inches of stout wall, that her shoulder would be flaring up again from the abuse. Not to mention her web of a thousand scars. It felt as though they were all on fire once more.
Off to the side of the generator room, the miners who normally manned the excavator watched unhappily. Juliette turned her head as powdered concrete billowed out from the wall. She saw the way the miners were watching her, arms crossed over wide chests, jaws set in rigid frowns. Were they angry at her for appropriating their gear? For insisting that she be the one to bore the first hole? Or was it the fear of broken taboo, of digging where it was forbidden?
She swallowed the grit and chalk accumulating in her mouth and concentrated on the crumbling wall. There was another possibility, one she couldn’t help but fear. A lot of good men and women had died while she was gone. The fighting that broke out here was because she was sent to clean. How many of them had lost a loved one, a best friend, a family member? How many of them blamed her?
Juliette found it hard to believe she might be the only one who did so.
The excavator bucked, and there was the clang of metal on metal. Juliette steered the punching jaws of the machine to the side as bones of rebar appeared through the fog and in the white flesh of concrete. She had already gouged out a veritable crater in the outer silo wall. A first row of rebar hung jagged overhead, the ends smooth like melted candles where she’d taken a blowtorch to them. Two more feet of concrete and another row of the iron rods? Juliette chewed at the stone between them, steering the machine with numb limbs and nerve. If she hadn’t seen the damn schematic herself, if she didn’t know there were other silos out there, she’d have given up already. It felt as though she were chewing through the very earth itself. Her arms shook, her hands a blur. This was the wall of the silo she was attacking, ramming it with a mind to pierce through the damn thing, to bore clear through to the outside.
The miners shifted about uncomfortably; they were probably thinking similar thoughts. Juliette looked from them to where she was aiming as the hammer-bit rang against more iron. She concentrated on the crease of white stone between the two bars. With her boot, she kicked the forward lever, and the excavator trudged ahead an inch. She should’ve taken another break a while ago. The chalk in her mouth had her dying for more water, and her arms needed a rest. There was rubble all around the base of the excavator and her feet. She had kicked a few of the larger chunks out of the way.
Her fear was that if she stopped one more time, she wouldn’t be able to convince them to let her go any further. Mayor or not, there were men she had thought fearless who had left the generator room while she worked. There were those who seemed terrified that she might puncture some sacred seal and let in the foul and murderous air. She saw they way they looked at her, knowing she’d been on the outside. Like she was a ghost. They kept their distance as if she harbored a virus, like she was some walking pestilence. Juliette set her teeth, could feel the grit crunch and crack between them, and kicked the forward plate again with her boot. Another inch. Goddamn the fighting and her friends dead. Goddamn the thought of Solo and the kids all alone over there, a forever of rock away. And goddamn this mayor nonsense, people looking at her like she suddenly ran all the shifts on every level, like she knew what the hell she was doing, like they had to obey her even as they feared her—
The excavator lurched forward more than an inch; the pounding hammer-bit screamed with a piercing whine. Juliette lost her grip with one hand, and the machine revved up like it was fit to explode. The miners startled like fleas, several of them running toward her, their shadows converging. Juliette hit the red kill switch, which was nearly invisible beneath a dusting of white powder. The excavator kicked and buckled as it wound down from its dangerous state.
“You’re through! You’re through!”
Raph pulled her back, his strong arms from years of mining wrapping around her numb limbs. They were telling her she was done. Finished. The excavator had made a noise like some connecting rod had shattered, that dangerous whine of a powerful engine running without friction, without anything to stop it. Juliette felt herself sag in Raph’s embrace. The desperation returned, the thought of her friends buried alive in some tomb of an empty silo and unable to reach them.
“You’re through, get back!”
A hand that smelled of grease clamped down over her mouth, more fear of the air beyond, and Jules saw a black patch of empty space as the billowing concrete dissipated. She saw a dark void beyond those bars of iron, those prison bars that ran two deep and all around them, from Mechanical to the up top, encasing them in this blasted cell, this prison cut off from the others, and now she was through. Through. With a glimpse of some other outside—
“The torch,” she mumbled, prying Raph’s calloused hand from her mouth. “Get me the cutting torch. And a flashlight.”
September 11, 2012
A Few Links
As part of the Kindle Book Review’s countdown to their Indie Book of the Year award, we were asked to come up with our “Dream Interview.” Mine, naturally, featured Natalie Portman and some scented oils.
YA author Ksenia Anske asked if I would guest blog over at her website. I decided to write up my theory about why some books go gangbusters and some fizzle. As we all know, it isn’t always the quality of the writing.
Finally, Skyler West interviewed me on his website. You should check out his book as well.
